stephen dunn | the imagined

22082011

POETRY DISPATCH No. 350 | August 21, 2011

STEPHEN DUNN

THE IMAGINED

If the imagined woman makes the real woman seem bare-boned, hardly existent, lacking in gracefulness and intellect and pulchritude, and if you come to realize the imagined woman can only satisfy your imagination, whereas the real woman with all her limitations can often make you feel good, how, in spite of knowing this, does the imagined woman keep getting into your bedroom, and joining you at dinner, why is it that you always bring her along on vacations when the real woman is shopping, or figuring the best way to the museum?

…………………………And if the real woman has an imagined man, as she must, someone probably with her at this very moment, in fact doing and saying everything she’s ever wanted, would you want to know that he slips in to her life every day from a secret doorway she’s made for him, that he’s present even when you’re eating your omelette at breakfast, or do you prefer how she goes about the house as she does, as if there were just the two of you? Isn’t her silence, finally, loving? And yours not entirely self-serving? Hasn’t the time come,

Now, here’s a poem that gets down to it. Reality, and accepting it, gets better all the time.
And in answer to Donald O’Donovan, I think the artwork may be by one Norbert Blei, who is far too little known for that facet of his abilities.

Rats! Dunn done disclose our deepest secrets! Nothing left to hide behind, even a fig leaf. I like the picture of you with your grass “halo” hung behind you on the Clearing Schoolhouse wall! Blessings…

Beautifully expressed, but sad too because in the best marriage or partnership one does not even entertain thoughts about an “ideal” but non-attainable partner. At least that was the case with my marriage of 43 years. It was simply unnecessary to make any comparisons.

Thanks Ralph and others for identifying the smashing art work as that of Norbert Blei. Great stuff. Childlike, yet sophisticated, intricate, mesmerizing. Now, where can I see more? I’m a painter myself, and this is exactly the sort of thing I would do if I were any good. I’ll be honest… I want to see more of Norbert’s work so I can pick up some tricks to incorporate in my own work. As Picasso said, “I don’t borrow; I steal!”

LIke many others I recognized the painting to be yours at once…which shows that you have your own unique style and grace. As for the “imagined one:, just want to repeat a little story.

After creating paradise God went down into the garden one day to ask Adam how he liked it. Adam said it was great, except he was lonely. God said he could fix that right away. He would create a woman companion for him who was gorgeous, dependable, brilliant, exciting, generous, erotic, tender, etc, etc. Only, God said, it would cost Adam an arm and leg.
Adam thought about it for a minute, then he said, “What could I get for a rib.”

other Norbert Blei web pages

The coop has flown

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Norbert Blei | 1935 – 2013

On the back roads of Door County again

Norbert Blei – 2012

Photo by Bobbie Krinsky

Norbert Blei – 2012

Photo by Jeffrey Winke

Norbert Blei – 2011

Photo by Sharon Auberle

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